Corridor city adds multi-million fire department

by Kayla James

One of the City of Washington fire department's vehicles in the current building.

WASHINGTON, Iowa, CBS2/FOX28 —

In the heart of Washington, you'll find city hall, the police department, and the fire department all in one building. While it's said that teamwork makes the dream work, this set-up is not convenient for the fire department who naturally require a lot of space for their daily activities.

That's why the city has implemented a 3.7 million dollar construction plan that will give the fire department its own building and expand city hall and the police department in the current shared building.

Right now, the lack of space is impacting the fire department in a number of ways. With very little space for meetings, the team has to change things around if they want to meet.

“If we have our monthly meetings and training we actually have to pull trucks out, just so we can have a spot to sit down and train and have our meetings," said Brendan DeLong, a City of Washington firefighter.

In addition to a lack of meeting space, the department does not have the room necessary to hold their annual training sessions. They also lack the space for comfortable living arrangements.

“Right now we sleep on a couch. We don’t have any room for them to just have their normal living quarters when they’re here," said DeLong.

With this new building will come four bedrooms, a meeting room, and more space for their vehicles.

Even though it won't be used by city services or the police department, the new building will also benefit them. City hall and the police department will have more space to make some additions of their own in what will be the fire department's old space.

“We would be adding back in a city council chamber. We’d be adding in several offices. For example, our mayor doesn’t have an office right now," said Brent Hinson, the Washington City Administrator.

The goal is to have the fire department's building completed by September of 2019. As soon as it is completed, the city plans to start working on expansion process for city hall and the police department, which they hope to have completed by September of 2020.